Review written by 'Oatley'

Ok guys, here's my effort - I think it would be appropriate if all the reviews were ultimately put in 1 thread but as others have I thought I'd have my own thread

The test system was as follows:

Becker Mexico Pro
DLS R6's powered by DLS CA21
DLS CA10 monoblock - Class A/B 400W @4ohm, 13.8V

I won't say anything about the appearance and build of the sub as others have gone through this, suffice to say that I agree with them and it is beyond what I'd expect at this price

Being a totally SQ orientated in my car audio pursuits the obvious choice for my box design was sealed and it was to my surprise (given that VIBE are all about vented enclosures) that Bass Box Pro calculated that the sub is actually more suited to a sealed box than a vented type. VIBE recommend a sealed enclosure of 1.5cubic feet which is about 42litres and BBP6's optimum SQ box is 44litres after displacement (55.5 pre-d), so I decided that my box was going to be to BB6's spec. As I use my boot daily I also wanted to make a smaller box that would be more practical for smaller boots and also get an idea of what would happen if you dropped the sub into a 'MotorWorld Special' box - generally around 1.2cu ft/34l, so the second box I made was 33.9l reduced to 28l after displacement. The predicted response for this box was a little peaky so I planned to use nylon wadding, courtesy of some cheap pillows, to smooth the curve. The boxes were made of 18mm MDF and glued and screwed (got through a 100pk of screws )

Predicted response curves for the empty (grey) and stuffed (red) 34l box:

Predicted response curves for the stuffed 34l (red) and the 50.5l (blue) boxes


Boxes:


An idea of how much wadding I used:


To start things off I put the sub in the unfilled 34l box, this was mainly due to the fact it would fit into my car without taking out the current sub. I gave it a good pounding with some rap and a Woosey Bass CD for a few hours to loosen the suspension before I considered any critical listening. After this time I loaded up the Prodigy's new greatest hits CD, on first impressions I was rather disappointed; the sub failed to hit any of the bottom notes it just wouldn't drop at all. Still, there's more to SQ than simply dropping low so I tried it with some good ol' GnR! The pace of the sub was rather impressive, it didn't miss a beat in the frantic drumming at the end of Paradise City but overall it was still lacking in weight and sounded a little peaky. Some psy-trance from Astral Projection fared much better and the pulsing beats pounded the music along Overall though, I felt the box was just too small to let the sub work properly.

Having heard lots of contradicting statements regarding the effects of wadding I was looking forward to finding my own results. I stuffed the box so that it was pretty much full but not compacted at all and then screwed the sub back on, there's no danger of the wadding melting - nylon 66 (its most common form) has a melting point of 263C and if the sub gets that hot there's more to worry about than the stuffing!

The transformation was immediate and astonishing, and a replay of the Prodigy CD showed that the sub is capable of dropping very nicely indeed thankyou and could easily portray the whole scale of the song, true it lacked some of the very low sub-bass-shake-your-bones frequencies and it rather looses its composure at high levels but then this sub only costs £100 and for the money there's more welly than you'd a right to expect.

The improved frequency response indicated by the BBP model manifests itself in a much more pleasing portrayal of music with 'real' instruments, the shallower roll off gives a much better replication of step-down bass lines and volume levels stay the same rather than dropping off all too quickly.

After this the sub was put in the 'ideal size' box and whilst it dropped even further and had higher bass output it lost its control at lower volume and generally sounded sloppy at anything approaching realistic volumes. This box may be suitable for budding streetbassers but for me not only was it physically too big but it also lost its impressive control. The stuffed 34l box was the one for me.

Now that we have a box in which the sub can perform well it was time to rate its SQness. Overall it was very good for the money and slotted into my system very well; in absolute terms it lacks some detail and its tonal accuracy is not perfect leaving the sub unable to replicate the timbre of instruments as well as some. Also its cone control isn't great meaning that drumbeats can become muddled when deep bass-lines are also throbbing (although this could be due to me underpowering the sub - I'd like to try this sub with around 700W on tap).

This though is nitpicking as for the price the SQ is great and better than any other £100 sub I've heard which frankly surprised me. Its rounded performance means there is nothing glaringly obvious that sticks out which makes it easy to forget - a good compliment to any sub. It also goes loud enough to shake any car and should please anyone who knows what a single 12" is capable.

So in conclusion I have been very impressed with the VIBE Black Air II sub and have enjoyed the opportunity to test one. It performs better than I had expected in all areas and would be an excellent purchase for anyone looking for SQ on a £100 budget. Also, if you get one as part of your first system it will support your next level of upgrades as although it's the weakest link in my system it is not totally shown up and I could happily live with it if I didn't already have a better sub.

One thing I would say though is that a £100 sub that requires 400W at 4ohms is a little odd as that sort of power doesn't come cheap and if you were going to buy an expensive amp you'd probably spend more than £100 on a sub.

Finally, maybe the biggest lesson I've learnt is something that is often preached but rarely actually tried: box design is critical! The differing levels of performance I got from this sub in just 3 different designs was astounding and if ever you find yourself with a spare weekend try it out, get B&Q to do the cutting and for £20 you can make 2 good boxes to experiment with.

Big Thanks to Dave@VIBE for organising the tests